Just because I work from home doesn't mean I have nothing going on. If you see me sitting at my desk, staring into space chances are I've got lots to do, I'm just taking a quick mental break. This job is tough yo!

Just because I'm home doesn't mean I am the maid, the trash taker outer nor the kitty box litter changer, all day every day. Our agreement on chores stands. Sometimes when I need to clear my head from a rough project, I'll step out of my home cube and step into our mess of a house to clean something. Consider that as rare as a hot pink skunk.

Just because I work from home doesn't mean I have 'extra' time to run your errands or quickly mock up your Aunt Bertrice's resume and fill out online contest forms for you. I know I rant and rave about all this wonderful flexible time I have but the truth is if I want to be a grown up, with a grown up biz, I've got to be on point when it comes to how I spend my time.

Just because I work from home doesn't mean every meal rests on my shoulders. There are days when ALL of my clients need something in the next hour. That means that we, as a family, may need to pitch in. And by we, I mean all of you who are old enough to cook. This goes for all meals. Don't even try to sneak in a 'oh you're home so I thought you'd take care of cooking us all a big breakfast'. For the love of god don't assume, ask, always.

Just because I work from home doesn't mean I can stay up late every night. Some nights I do because it's much quieter and I can do some super focused work. Sometimes it's just really hard to concentrate with everyone doing their own thing in the house so staying up late just seems like the right thing to do. Come morning I'm generally cursing myself out for doing so, therefore I try to limit this to rare occasions when possible.

Just because I work from home doesn't mean I want to chit chat all day - catching up or connecting is great, but please respect my time. Ask me if I am available. I totally disliked chit chatting in the cube farm because I didn't want to get in trouble. Now that I call the shots, I still don't want to get in trouble....with myself. Myself says get your arse to work or else you'll stay up late and then end up cursing yourself out in the morning.

In all honesty today I managed to get two newsletters out, work on two different systems for clients, research and fix about 5 tech issues, update 2 websites, work on a new sign up form (plus tons more work stuff) clean out my closet, do two loads in the dishwasher, put away 4 loads of laundry that piled up on a chair in my bedroom, scrub the tub ( with the help of my little papaya), cook dinner and clean out the cat little box. Pretty sure I was never able to fit all of these things into one weekday when I worked in corporate America.

Still, boundaries people, boundaries!

What about you, has anything like this happened in your home work environment? Feel free to pass this along to anyone who seems to cross your work from home boundaries.....